The Five Nation War
by Syn'ri
Summary: Centuries ago a war broke out within the Land of the Rising Sun, and many men were sent away to fight their own brethren in a seemingly endless war until a young girl in search of her kin joins them in the fray. Warning: Mulan-esque! Pairing: SasHinaNaru


**Disclaimer: **Psh...do I have to do this? *is pushed further on a stage with a podium and mic* Ugh! But I was just kidding about that whole Kishi thing...? Really? Really? I have to...Okay. Okay! Alright...I do not own Naruto, Mulan (even though the stories are only vaguely similar), or any other Naruto characters! Okay! Happy now?...OH! You WOULD be!

**AN: **Sup? It's kind of obvious who I am since you clicked on this story (hopefully intentionally). And I know, ANOTHER STORY! Why, yes! In fact! Though I plan for this story to be EPIC!...though the chances of me getting past 4 Chapters,...not looking good, and the chances of me getting more than 40 reviews...looking even worse, but I am going to just shut up and start the story, and if you review, don't be too nice the first Chapter...it gets me nervous! The only **NINJAS **you will see are rogues since the shinobi villages do not exist yet.

Chapter 1: Jōshō!

-戦争-

Hinata was never the type to break the rules. In fact, she was never even the type to try to even slightly bend the social shackles that have been enforced upon her by her family ever since she was born. It was just too risky. She had way too much to lose, and she already caught her fair share of grief for just being herself. To try and rebel while also being a failure, that was pure Hyuuga blasphemy.

She was the heiress to a clan where everyone was powerful and strong. Natural administrators of war and distributors of punishment. However, some of that fight and fear must have hopped, skipped, and leaped past her because Hinata was none of those things.

She was quiet, to herself, shy, and basically weak. At least, that is what her clan always lead her to believe with their taunts and shunning.

Even the villagers, the people of who she was supposed to look down upon, were quite critical of her non-Hyuuga ways. Whenever she would walk through the village in order to watch the children play and converse with the shopkeepers, they would whisper sweet venomous words behind her back without knowing that she could hear every single comment they made about her appearance and personality.

The jeers could go on for days, and for awhile, Hinata couldn't help the fact that those hurtful words struck too close to home. The words spoken by the villagers would resemble the words of her family not only in language but poison that thrummed through her veins with each hiss.

She found it hard not to, but she would not let either party see her with tears fluttering against her rosy colored pale cheeks because she would not give them the satisfaction of knowing just how far they had broken her down. She would not allow them the ammunition since her wills were enough ammo for them to tear her inside out.

They could tear her down verbally all they wanted, and she would not budge because the only one who was able to bring her down lower than dirt was her father.

Hinata was certainly a wallflower due to her father's torturing words and beatings. Even she would agree to that fact with a strong conviction. She was a pristine lily tacked to the thinly matted shoji doors that lined the compact and compressed walls that were the Hyuuga compound.

Yes, there was no denying that she was one of the many flowers that had been smeared on the walls with sharp tipped paint brushes that were used by only men of worldly knowledge from as far as the Ōta-gawa.

Her father had always taught her that she was to be seen, and she was not to be heard. She was to sit up straight with her spine vertical to the heels of her feet, baring down on her ankles despite the pain, but constantly on alert because Kami forbid that her father's tea yunomi ever met the half way point. She couldn't even think of such things because of it's weighing effects.

If she was even slightly absentminded and the tea bowl became vacant before her father's request, she would be taken from his presence immediately by her governess and receive ten lashings on each hand from a thick swaddle of strapped bamboo branches to her bear knuckles and the inside of her wrists.

Her knuckles would be slightly blooded after the sixth swat, and the governess would cut a small sliver in the bamboo once her reddened knuckles started to bleed.

A small amount of juice would coat the bamboo branches, and after the juice began to leak down the governess's old withered hands, she would begin the whipping again with more vigor to make sure the juice covered Hinata's open wounds to add that additional sting to the already painful whipping.

Hinata wouldn't shed a tear since she was so used to the constant tortures from her slightly klutzy younger teenaged years. Yes, it is true. There were times worse than this when she was younger, and her legs used to be littered with scratches and wounds from accidentally bumping into the kotatsu and spilling her father's tea.

She did that a lot back then, but she quickly learned to watch her step after her legs became so bruised from her punishments that she wasn't able to walk for a few weeks.

However still, it never seemed to fail that after the stinging sensation touched the already beaten bones of sensitive skin did she begin to feel the prickle of a tear touch the rim of her porcelain eye lid. She would hold the tears back with a vengeance because it just wouldn't do for her to show weakness in front of the woman who raised her with an iron will.

Hinata hated days like those where she got so severely punished for such minor mistakes that even she had to admit she brought it upon herself. It wasn't like her father really cared about her anyways, but even so, it wasn't as if she was complaining. It was just something that everyone in the compound acknowledged and ignored about their hierarchy, but she had to admit, she didn't mind much.

She never seemed to be good enough for anybody in her life anyway, but wasn't that the story of every living clan 'Heiress'. For the mere fact that Fate weaved it's silken web that allotted you the title of woman, you were not good enough because it was a known fact from all corners of the world that a man deserves a son.

It was mere treachery for fact that Hinata's mother had died at a young tender age, and she left only in her stead a sickly baby girl that was constantly bedridden along with her clumsy sister and her father's only hope of getting a pure bred Hyuuga son.

She was sure her father would have married many summers past had it not been for the fact that the clan's Counsel hadn't found any of the women in the clan suitable for her father, and her father would rather hand Hinata over the title of clan head before he dare soil his oats in the bed of a non-Hyuuga woman.

And due to his heated looks and stinging words, Hinata had figured out a while ago that her father was not to happy with the fact that she was his only other option. Hanabi, her younger sister, was far too weak physically to take over the Hyuuga clan's rulings, and as far as Hiashi saw it, Hinata was far to weak mentally to ever rule.

She hated those days when he voiced just how weak he thought she was. She hated those days when she felt as if the words he spoke were true.

Oh my, did she hate days like these.

"Eep!...eep...ack!...eh...ugh," were all Hinata could mumble as the same woman, known as Chiyo to some, who had beat her knuckles raw was now seated in front of her white futon as she kneeled on a small cotton cushion while gently crushing up a good amount of herbs in a thick brown chawan.

Every few seconds she would halt her crushing to grab the now thoroughly smushed green glob and place a nice amount on Hinata's now purple knuckles.

Chiyo didn't say a word, and neither did Hinata aside from the small exclamations of pain that made their way through her rose colored lips. Though, Hinata could see in Chiyo's more withered forehead that the fire was building as she added a little too much on one of Hinata's hand, which caused a small hiss on Hinata's part and a glare on Chiyo's before she looked back down to her job.

Hinata found her cheeks began to heat up from being mentally chastised as she forced her eyes to look down. After awhile though, Hinata found her eyes began to roam her room from corner to corner as she thought back to what had taken her attention from her father in the first place.

There was a fierce war going on between the five nations, and every day that passed was more tiresome than the one before. Because you see, Hinata was waiting for someone to return to her. Someone who was of great importance to her who was currently risking his life in the ill fated war.

Everyday it seemed like another Imperial guard was riding up to a different family in the village to tell them with little to no remorse that their son had died, and everyday without fail, whenever Hinata heard the rapid clicking of heels come from the edge of the forest, she would feel her heart drop as she stood on shaky legs and fumbled with the shoji door as the guard would trample into their homeland. For, that day could be the day that the one she waited for would be reported dead.

She would forget to breath when she would see the message tucked so dearly in the guards satchel, and she would pray to Kami as she would feel tears coming more easily than they did from her own pain. She would keep her eyes closed with her hands tucked deeply in her chest until she would feel the cool breeze of the wind blow back a few of her long dark locks.

Hinata was ashamed of the feelings that would undoubtedly come next. The feeling of relief that would flood her heart. Followed quickly by joy before she began to hear _them_.

The guttural screams of torture that were ripped from the throats of women and men a like as they realized that their son or nephew or cousin was taken from this damp world in such a vile and cruel way.

The pure agony that flowed through those lungs from the lose of a loved one was too much for Hinata to bear, and she would cover her ears at night when the whole village would come together to mourn the lose of another brother.

Guilt would come creeping in soon after before she began to feel a small nudge of that agony felt by that particular family. Because the boy who had died that day, she was sure she had seen him some time or another.

She was sure she had heard his giggles when they were little. Probably had been on the receiving end of one of his jokes, and she may have even blushed when he had made a crude comment about one of the girls in the village because while she hadn't given him a gift on his birthday, gone swimming in the pond when their parents weren't looking, or been on a picnic with him or his friends a little too far in the forest, she had grown up with that little boy inadvertently from his smiles, even if it was from afar.

"...ata-sama, why do you put yourself through this? I mean child, if you just stop daydreaming, I wouldn't have to take time out of my busy day to worry with your inadequacies!" was the next thing that entered Hinata's ears as she realized that for quite some time now, she was being further chastised.

"Every other day, Hiashi-sama is calling me in to beat your hands for wasting some tea, or your legs for tripping over him while you're in your dream states! Foolish girl, pretty soon your going to have a broken wrist like you did 3 springs ago!" the woman said as she began to wrap Hinata's hand tightly with bandages.

"I mean what is it that is so important for you to think about that you award yourself a whipping as often as you can! You know Hiashi-sama has been on extra pins and needles ever since you-know-who was sent of too that Kami forsaken war. Why must you agitate him?" Chiyo said as she wrapped one of Hinata's hands a little too tightly as the girl winced from the pain and the stare Chiyo was baring down on her.

"Hmm? Speak girl!" Chiyo said as she gave Hinata an extra pat on the top of her bandaged knuckles with the top of her hand, which made Hinata wince and look up at Chiyo. Chiyo stared back daringly, and Hinata realized that she was actually expected to speak as she began to fumble over her words.

"I...I-I...I,"

Hinata fumbled with her words as she let her head drop down to look at her lap which was covered by a plain and white kimono. She let her long black eyelashes seal away her emotions as she waited for the woman to just yell and chastise her before walking away as she usually did, but the woman looked determined to get what she wanted from the girl. She wasn't going to let Hinata cop out this time.

"I...I d-don't...I j-just...I can't...I can't...s-say," Hinata realized as she kept talking that the patience was running thin, and she could see more fire building behind Chiyo's eyes again.

To be honest, Hinata at this point would rather take another beating then tell what she was really feeling. It just wasn't the Hyuuga way.

Then, just as Hinata thought the elder woman had had enough and was going to flip her over her knee and get her real good on the behind as she used to, the woman just sighed before a very understanding look crossed her face.

Hinata finally got to see kindness cross the woman's round face for the first time since the war started. Her wrinkly skin seemed to stretch slightly as strands of gray outside of the woman's usual tightly knotted bun tickled the sides of her softer looking cheeks. Her beady brown eyes looked less worn and when she spoke, Hinata felt more incline to listen instead of just looking as if she were doing so.

"Hinata,...I know that you are worried about him, but you are not doing yourself any good by going through this pain," Chiyo whispered as she let her old withered hand caress Hinata's soft ivory cheek. The girl's soft lilac eyes could only look away from the older and wiser brown orbs.

Chiyo was waiting for something. She was waiting for something that people always seemed to look for in a Hyuuga when they conversed. She was looking for emotion and grief for she knew that they lied beneath those lilac eyes even if they never lied beneath silver. She knew that Hinata felt something, and Chiyo just wanted to know that she wasn't the only one suffering.

She wanted to know that she wasn't the only one who was hurt. She wanted to know that she wasn't the only one losing sleep from worry. She wasn't the only one who couldn't eat or think because her grandson...yes, her poor grandson was also at war, and he had always been a sickly young thing. And, she wondered constantly how he was fairing.

But Hinata was not giving her the satisfaction. The young girl's eyes stayed littered with confusion, and Chiyo wanted so badly to shake her into submission. She wanted terribly to shake her until her eyes would tear up and she would admit to missing him and cling to her dear governess until her hands turned red, but it would be more for Chiyo's comfort than anyone's. Because at this moment in time, a hug of any kind would suffice.

"Sigh,...I guess I misunderstood your absentmindedness for worry," Chiyo said as she placed down the chawan before she stood to her feet. Her old brown wool kimono was hanging lifelessly at her hips, but it was cinched up from Chiyo grasping it at the base of her thigh.

"I will leave you to rest Hinata-sama, and I will let Hiashi-sama know that you are deeply sorry for your actions and humbly ask for his forgiveness," Chiyo said as she looked away from Hinata as if she couldn't bare to lay her eyes on someone as heartless as she, and Hinata wanted more than anything to confide in Chiyo, but her voice wouldn't sound and her emotions wouldn't change.

"Goodnight,...Hinata-sama," Chiyo said before she bowed and began to scurry out of the room through the cracked shoji door to leave Hinata to her thoughts.

Hinata watched with emotionless features as her eyes became shrouded with hurt from the fact that she could not give the old woman what she wanted...no what she needed most. Hinata was no fool.

She knew the older woman had a grandson who was off fighting for his nation, and she knew that the older woman and her grandson were both from a nation foreign to her own. If the old woman so much as showed any remorse for her grandson, she would be accused of being a spy for her own nation before she was swiftly beheaded.

For some reason, Chiyo had left her nation in order to come to the Fire Land, and somehow before Hinata's birth, she was drafted to work for the Hyuuga's. Chiyo was loyal to the cruel and emotionless Hyuuga's through and through, but they were not loyal to her. And she knew it.

Hinata was the only one the older woman could possibly get any comfort from, and the girl out right refused to offer it.

It wasn't that the young girl did not respect Chiyo, and it was not that she did not want to help her cope. But, she was fighting her own battle. She was fighting to keep from breaking, and it took all of her to stop her whole visage from cracking and falling away like little dry particles of clay.

Hinata sat there on her bare futon as she stared at the blank walls of her room before eying the door in which Chiyo had just passed. It seemed to her as if she had been staring for hours, and in all honesty, she probably had been.

When she was younger and her mother was still alive, she and her mother would each grab a paint brush and some paints made out of herbs, and they would sit in the room all day painting the walls all different kind of colors and hues. Creating different worlds with each stroke.

Hinata herself had never been quite good at painting, and consequently, her paintings never quite evolved past the primal scribblings of a child. But her mother, her mother could take her to far off places and lands which were filled with dragons, Kami, oceans, spices, colors, and little princesses that always held some sort of resemblance to Hinata herself.

Be it their eyes which were filled with kindness. Their courage, which would save their kingdom, or their mother...and father, who would be there to push them and support them if they were to fall.

Her father had never been a very kind man, and she had realized while young that her mother and her father were figuratively and literally one. Her mother brought kindness and understanding to their being, and her father, he brought the strength.

He had always thought that painting was trivial, and he had only let Hinata and her mother do it because he believed that it made her mother happy. Anything to make her mother happy. He would allow it just to keep her closer to him one more day. Just one more day.

However, as to be expected, that leisure had ended quickly after the death of her mother.

Hinata was scolded each time one of the servants found her in her mother's old room sniffling and crying as she held a paint covered brush to the bosom of her white yukata while staring endlessly at a garish version of her, her mother, and a half painted version of her father before being dragged away.

She did not kick or scream or fuss and fight when they would take her away because her father had violently slapped that out of her the night of her mother's death when she tried futilely to make her way to her mother's dead body in order to be held in her lifeless arms one last time.

It was the first and last time he would lay his hands on her outside of training, and it would also be the last time he showed her any sort of emotion other than disappointment and dismissal. She had lost her father, and it was her first time realizing that she had never really had him.

Soon after that, Hinata began spending more time in her room. Just staring at the whiteness and imagining images bleed into the blank walls like wet paint before swirling and creating a picture that Hinata could perfect with her imagination.

She would be forced to leave the room in order to train, in order to leave, in order to look as if she were fine, but as soon as her father even hinted he did not want her in his sight anymore, she would hurry back to her room as if he were chomping at her heels. Her mother would be there.

Her absentmindedness began to show, and Chiyo was appointed as her governess not long after. The beatings began, and Hinata began to see the colors less and less. She had begun to forget what her mother looked like.

The image would fade in and out every so often, and whenever she would catch a glimpse of familiarity, she would shut her eyes and squeeze and will the picture to clear, to stay.

She would do as she was now, and stare at the wall so long that she would remember one of those old drawings she would make with her mother before her smile would come and Hinata would squeeze and squeeze until the nerves within her eyes would bulge and ache.

She would squeeze and squeeze until fatigue would overtake her, and her eyes would feel weak and overused. Then, she would sleep, not necessarily because she was tired or because her eyes would tire. She would sleep because she would finally feel comfort, and she would know that in her dreams her mother would be there waiting to hold her and ease her worries. Even if she would not remember.

-戦争-

That night Hinata was awoken from what felt like a dreamless sleep to that of the sound of hoofs rapidly as the riders ferociously made their ways to the center of the village. Hinata could hear the compound become a buzz as Hyuuga stirred from their beds to see what was going on.

Why were there so many troops? What was happening?

Hinata remained in her bed, and kept her eyes closed as she tried to remember the basis of her dream when she heard the rapid sound of drums.

Village assembly.

Followed closely by the blaring sound of a horn that reverberated throughout the confines of the compound. So deep and so powerful, Hinata could feel the notes pass through her skin and throughout her body.

War.

Hinata lifted in one swift motion before she bounded through her shoji door before being met by another then another and another. She passed through the last one before finding a small wooden hall that lead to a double paneled shoji door that she passed through to meet the cool air of outside.

By the time she made it there, the Hyuuga residences were being emptied out rapidly. A crowd of only Hyuugas traveling to the center of the village to see what was happening. She had a feeling her father was already there in the heart of it.

Hinata started towards the middle of the village as she joined the crowd of rushing Hyuuga. She felt herself being pushed and shoved, and she felt kind of disoriented since all of those faces seemed familiar yet not. They looked like her, but they didn't. And she felt kind of lost until she saw a small wry body fighting against the crowd and making its way towards her.

She squinted her eyes slightly to get a better look, and she did not recognize the person until they were upon her and grabbing her hand. It was Chiyo.

"Come on you young ninny. You are moving too slow," Chiyo shrilled out over the bussling crowd as she dragged Hinata through the mass a little ways towards the center were a man, a soldier to be more exact, was already addressing them from atop his horse. Her father was in the front of the crowd on the other side of her. Looking authoritative and...mean.

"Mura o mite, I come to you from the shogun in order to warn you of impending danger," The soldier clad head to toe in a full bronze ō-yoroi rasped out in a heavy voice as he looked down at the villagers.

"The enemy is coming extremely close to this land, and the shogun is in need of a central base," the air became tense as everyone began to realize what the man was insinuating.

"So, as of today, all able bodied men have been drafted to become troops in service to the shogun, and this village has now become the central base for the shoguns troops."

Hinata gasped as the village became a buzz with words of protest and sobs as women clung to their husbands and children, and children weeped at the prospect of losing both a brother and a father.

"Hiashi!"

A man growled out as he stepped forward and pointed at the man in question. The other man was small in stature, and the disrespect would have been obvious without his sounding. But, the anger was prevalent and the hate was there as the man stared down Hinata's father.

"You war monger! You have sold our village off the highest bidder just so you can call in a favor to the shogun!"

The villagers and the soldiers were quiet as the man went on, and Hinata watched in awe and horror as the man called out her father. Noticing the piercing eyes of the soldiers bore into the man's figure as her father stared blankly.

"Our sons are the ones who died in the war, and now, we shall as well as our women folk are left here to fall prey to the shogun's filthy men," The man was seized at once, and the woman fell in to more turmoil as they watched the man be roughly handled.

"You all know its true! Not once has any Hyuuga come down to send their condolences to us during the mourning ceremonies, and half of our village men are made up of Hyuuga alone. He is offering our women and our supplies to keep his clan from having to fight. He and the shogun are filthy war mongers! Filthy, filthy war mongers!"

The man received a heavy blow to the head from the butt of a sword and the women and children cried out as his body went limp. Chiyo grabbed Hinata's left hand, and the girl resisted bringing the other to her mouth to resist a sob.

"Take him away so he can sleep off his delusions, and once he awakens, have a little...talk with him to assure he is convinced that what the shogun has decided is best," The soldier said with a cold voice before his troops sounded with an affirmative before dragging the man away.

When the soldier looked back upon the crowd, he was met with fear and disgust.

"I assure you that the man does not know that of what he is speaking. Hiashi-dono has given his nephew, his clan, and his village to this war, and he will be joining this war a general for the shogun's army. Now, if that is all of the protests we have to the new arrangements, we shall begin preparing the men and the village for the new terrors of the Five Nation War."

The soldier did not wait to hear the objections as he lead some of his men to the Hyuuga compound. Leaving a village in emotional shambles, and Hinata in a silent confusion.

She, however, was yanked out of that confusion as she felt herself being pulled along by Chiyo. She hardly recognized the feeling as her emotions and thoughts began to settle at the bottom of her mind after being shaken, not stirred.

"C-chiyo-baa-sama, w-what is g-going on?"

Hinata asked in a small voice as she felt villagers scurry around her. Some talking of plans on how to prepare for the war, and others talking of plans of escape. The latter sounded rather comforting to her.

"Are you slow and daft girl? Didn't you hear? We are not going to war. It's coming to us,"Chiyo said as she looked only for a second. Still slightly dragging the taller young woman as her nimble feet avoided being trampled. Hinata was floundering behind her like a lost fish.

War? Weren't they already in war? If they were not within it, then where were they?

"I...I don't understand? Aren't we already in war?"

Her small voice rose slightly in octave as she tried to speak over the shouting, sobbing, and frantic villagers. She narrowly missed stepping on some loose chickens being chased by a young boy as her steps started to straighten and posture became more aware.

Chiyo stopped with a jerk, and she looked at Hinata as if only now just seeing her for the first time. Her beady eyes hollow and piercing and understanding as if they now just figured how innocent their ward truly was. How untouched the world had left her. How naïve.

"This...this is not war..."

Chiyo said sagely as she indicated towards the chaos around them. Crying women, children, and comforting men all lined the dark and dank village as they all raced to their homes in order to savor what little time they had left.

"This is not even the beginning of war."

Chiyo said as she looked away from the young girl. Starting back at her heavy pace, yet this time Hinata was walking in time with her. Eager to hear what it was that she was missing. What is was that she should avoid, but she was met with a contemplating look from Chiyo as the woman walked through the tumultuous crowd expertly.

She did not miss a step, and Hinata watched her mesmerized when the woman spoke. A look of uncertainty and security fluctuating across her cheeks, her wrinkles.

"Maybe that is why you and Hiashi-sama can never quite get along."

Hinata was quite surprised at the statement as her body stopped on its own before starting back on autopilot in order to catch up to Chiyo when she noticed the woman was not stopping. Chiyo had either hesitated or waited for Hinata because the young girl caught up to the woman just in time to hear the next lines.

"He...he wanted to keep you naïve, but...but that's not how the world saw fit."

The older woman appeared to be talking to herself, and she left Hinata confused as the young girl could not help but question her.

"W-what?"

She was met with silence as they finally approached the Hyuuga compound. The older woman walked towards the section that held Hinata's room, and the young girl made to follow when she noticed two horses tied to a post not far from her home.

She looked towards her father's congregation room and noticed a light She could tell that her father was conversing with the soldier and a subordinate.

She wanted to hear what was going on. Why was her father letting them use the village? And why was he letting these men treat the villagers as if they were dirt?

She made a bold step towards the light and the room when she felt a small pressure at the end of her wrist.

"Hinata-sama, don't you think it is time for you to go to bed?" Chiyo said with a hint of a warning, and Hinata looked at her with steeled eyes. No hesitation in her voice when she spoke.

"Hai, Chiyo-baa-sama,...hai."

-戦争-

**AN: Hope you liked it, and you read and review! I cut it off like that for a reason, and now, I have to set Hinata up to leave so Next Chapter: Senkou!**


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